Riot Sells 3,778 Bitcoin in Q1, Posts More Collateral as BTC Slides
Riot sold more than twice as much Bitcoin as it mined in the first quarter, using a market downturn to tap its treasury as it pushes deeper into high-performance computing colocation.
The Texas bitcoin mining giant said on Thursday it sold 3,778 Bitcoin in the January-to-March period for net proceeds of $289.5 million, at an average price of $76,626 per coin. That compares with the quarterly production of 1,473 Bitcoin, down 4% from a year earlier. Riot ended March with 15,680 Bitcoin on its balance sheet, down from 18,005 as of the end of 2025.
The sales came during a volatile stretch for Bitcoin prices, which slid earlier in the quarter and pressured miners’ margins and balance sheets. Based on Riot’s figures, the company sold roughly 2.6 times the amount of Bitcoin it produced in the period, signaling a more active treasury strategy compared with prior cycles when miners tended to hold onto reserves.
The drawdown was compounded by tighter collateral requirements on Riot’s debt. The company disclosed that 5,802 Bitcoin were classified as restricted as of March 31, up from 3,977 at the end of 2025, with those coins pledged against its $200 million Coinbase credit facility. Riot said in its annual report that falling Bitcoin prices forced it in February to pledge an additional 1,825 Bitcoin as collateral, indicating the decline had pushed the loan-to-value ratio to a threshold that required a top-up.
Together, the reserve sales and increased collateralization highlight how Bitcoin’s price slump is reshaping miners’ balance sheets — not only reducing the value of their holdings, but also increasing the amount of Bitcoin needed to support existing financing.
At the same time, Riot is accelerating a strategic shift toward AI and high-performance computing colocation, seeking to monetize its large power footprint in Texas beyond Bitcoin mining.
In January, the company said it funded the $96 million acquisition of 200 acres at its Rockdale site through the sale of about 1,080 Bitcoin. It also signed a 10-year lease and services agreement with Advanced Micro Devices for an initial 25 megawatts of capacity, with potential to scale to 200 MW. Riot said the agreement is expected to generate about $311 million in contract revenue over the first decade.
On the mining side, Riot’s operating metrics were mixed. Deployed hashrate rose 26% from a year earlier to 42.5 EH/s, while average operating hashrate increased 23% to 36.4 EH/s. Its all-in power cost fell to 3.0 cents per kilowatt-hour from 3.8 cents, and total power credits more than doubled to $21 million.
